vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #150 / Business / Reading article...

Representatives of five Japanese ports visited Vladivostok on September 8 to determine if the area merits increased trade with the potential of restarting heavy trade over the Trans-Siberian Railroad.

The delegation was impressed with Vostochny and Vladivostok Commercial ports’ capacity, but it worried about high railway tariffs and customs hassles that have stymied Primorye’s efforts to establish itself as a strong, competitive link from the Pacific Rim to western Europe.

The delegates said that the customs process, which currently takes an average twelve days and can run much longer, is too unreliable for a real commitment to the area. They also said that tariff laws on Russian railroads are more expensive than transporting through China, or even shipping goods around Africa and up to the western coast of Europe.

“When you can positively improve your situation, we will be a lot more interested in taking part in this kind of joint work,” said Syodzi Yosixaro, head of the delegation.

In an effort to sustain Japanese interest in the area, the krai Shipping, Sea Ports, Communications, and Transportation Committee said that it is working to make rail transport more efficient, though progress is slow, said Alexander Lapshin, deputy chairman of the committee. Krai officials are also pressuring state and federal lawmakers to decrease tax pressures on companies involved in the transportation business, he said.

Lapshin is hopeful, however, that the Japanese will bring more business to Primorye. Federal Minister of Railways Nikolai Aksenenko met with company and state leaders on September 12, and has promised to reduce rail tariffs by fifty percent, which have skyrocketed since 1992.

The Japanese delegation’s visit coincides with krai efforts to bring back rail traffic that went elsewhere after Russian tariffs made transportation across the Trans-Siberian Railroad too expensive. The railroad was busiest in 1981, when over 200,000 twenty-foot containers came through the ports and onto the tracks every year. Last year, that number stood at about 6,000 twenty-foot containers.

In the late 1980’s, Japan exported more than 400,000 tons through Russia every year. Now, Japan ships less than 60,000 tons annually. Its main export from Russia before 1992 was coal, but coal is too expensive now as well – thanks, in part, to the rail tariffs.

Lapshin said that the krai has the capacity to surpass the 1981 benchmark, but until the Railway Minister delivers on his promises, he can’t predict when it will happen.